Shaky Djokovic Gets His Revenge On Musetti, Gets De Minaur Next; Sinner v Rune

Novak Djokovic was struggling early against the man who beat him at the Monte Carlo Masters a year ago, Lorenzo Musetti. But this time, Djokovic was able to turn the tables.

Down a break in the opener 4-2, Djokovic capitalized on Musetti’s inexperience to win it 7-5, 6-3.

Djokovic went up a break in the second before it was the Italian’s time to level. But Djokovic was able to pull away late to reach the quarterfinals. The Serb, though, did display a bizarre bout of shaking at the end during a changeover.

“I must say that at some moments of the game today I was really not feeling great physically,” Djokovic said. “But that’s also part of the first several matches on clay. You know, when you play somebody as strong as Musetti, you know, where you have to earn your victory, have to work physically very hard, it’s kind of, yeah, very much possible that it will happen where you will somehow hit the wall physically and you have to kind of find a way up from that.

“But I managed to find a way. That’s what matters the most. I keep going,” he said. “I’m already feeling some great things on the court these few days, and that’s what matters the most for me, I mean, that I’m on the right path. Now, you know, Paris is where I want to reach the summit in terms of the way I play and feel, so I’m feeling good right now.”

Djokovic will now face Alex de Minaur who took care of countryman Alexei Popyrin.

Stefanos Tsitsipas had an excellent win taking out Alexander 7-5, 7-6(3). Tsitsipas led 5-0 in the second before Zverev came back.

The 2-time Monte Carlo winner will now meet Karen Khachanov who scored the upset of the day knocking his compatriot Daniil Medvedev in straights.

Holger Rune had the win of the afternoon ousting the in-form Grigor Dimitrov in a final set breaker. He’ll now get Jannik Sinner tomorrow after the world No. 2 took care of Jan-Lennard Struff.

Also, advancing to a showdown were Casper Ruud and Ugo Humbert